According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, fatal truck accidents happen almost 11 times a day; this translates to more than 100,000 injuries and more than 4,000 deaths every year. These numbers are despite the facts that both the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) have created laws and strictly enforce these laws that are directed towards achieving significantly reduced road accidents involving trucks.

If federal and local government agencies, and traffic enforcers remain determined in their pursuit of ensuring safety on the road, though, then how is it that the number of truck accidents still remains so high? The answer is a combination of bad driving performance and company or employer negligence.

With regard to bad driving behavior, it has been discovered that many truck accidents are caused by drivers with multiple violations and who have very recently received warnings from their safety officers; despite these violations and warnings, they have been allowed to continue operating their vehicles.

In 1986, the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which strictly mandates the removal of bad drivers from the road, was passed into law. Allowing drivers to continue operating a truck despite multiple traffic violations, especially a DUI or driving under the influence (either of alcohol or drugs), is a clear violation of this law, to which drivers, safety officers and employers must answer.

On the issue of company or employer negligence, the Department of Transportation has revealed that many small truck companies, to be able to continue with their operations, simply re-register under a new name and change their corporate structure in order to evade liability for accidents wherein their drivers are at fault, and escape legal responsibility for company violations of federal laws.

Unlike cars and SUVs, a semi-trailer, also called a big rig or an 18-wheeler, can easily damage smaller vehicles, crushing these like tin cans and severely injuring or killing all their passengers. Accidents, injuries and deaths are not just statistical data. In each accident, many lives are affected: the lives of victims and of the members of their respective families. It will be in the best interest of victims to get in touch with a highly-skilled personal injury lawyer (as soon as possible) after an accident occurs for them to immediately receive justice and the compensation which the court may find them worthy to claim.